Where did you learn that?

Did you ever stand still by the things in your life that have always been there or that you have always known? I am talking about simple things like how to open and close a water tap. How to screw in a light bulb. How to flush a toilet or how to take a warm shower. These are all things you learn from your parent(s) when you grow up.
When I was four years old I went to kindergarten. Not that I particularly liked it but I went. From that time until I finished high school it was a recurring activity in my life. No choice, whether I liked it or not. I never once thought about the expense of school. That was not my problem. Mostly the schools were free, you just had to buy some stuff for it. My parents paid for the stuff.

Now imagine growing up in Haiti. Your parents have no money. They have no paying job, they just work hard in the garden to grow some food. They might have a pig or a goat and hope to sell it when they need money urgent like for medical help or for school. Not for all of their kids, are you kidding! maybe just for one.

Schools costs a lot of money. You cannot go if you have no shoes or uniform. You have to pay tuition, got to buy books and stuff. The government does not pay for that. So if the pig lives and gets sold you might, just might, go to school. If the rains don't fall there is no grass for the goat or much for the pig to eat. They'll die or get sold for very little money. Forget about school that year. Someone needs to go to the hospital: Oh well, now school is beyond the horizon.

This is why I run into people of all ages, all the time in Haiti who have virtually no education. They break the light bulb when you ask them to change it. They destroy a nut while trying to loosen it. It does not occur to them that they might have to turn the other way. They break off a door handle because they don't understand the working of it. It drives me nuts sometimes.

And yet the solution for the problem is simple. Education! From when they go into kindergarten until high school is finished. Maybe even college after that. I'm dreaming, I know.

And all that lacks to do it is money. Just a little money.

One thing I never learned in school. Why was I born in a country where that problem did not exist.

Everything Is Possible.

Haven't blogged in quite a while. Not that there was nothing to write about. On the contrary it has been crazy busy. Now there is so much to tell you that I have to break it up in pieces. Just to make sure you don't fall asleep and drool all over your computer. Here we go:

Last week I was talking with some of the masons who help us build the refugee houses in Lakos. We had to make a budget and order the materials for house number two. When I asked how much gravel they ordered for the first one, they shrugged. Didn't remember that. Well, I started to explain how you can calculate that. They followed along until we decided we needed 70 cubic feet of gravel. Their response was "well it only comes in a large truck". They did not know how much one of those carried. Now since a few months  we have a brand new flatbed truck. It is small enough that it can drive all the way up to the building site, whereas the big truck only can dump the gravel  on the main road a quarter mile or so away. So I suggested that we would fill our own truck up at the river where the gravel is sold. I did the math and figured that two loads would suffice. They all shook their heads and said, that was not possible because we could only buy it with a big truck. I asked why this was and if we could not try to make a deal with the people there who could even make a little more profit selling it in smaller quantities. The savings for us would be to use our own truck and not having to pick it up from the road where  it would be dumped. To make a long story short, it took a lot of convincing before they accepted the plan and then the first one said, "I get it, Hein is trying to tell that we can save a lot of trouble by using the small truck, It will work!"  This is something I run in a lot. There are ways they do things. They just never think about how you could overcome problems or how it could be done better and maybe less expensive. These were relatively young people who went to school. That is the problem. Haitian schools do not teach students to be creative or how to find solutions on their own. They memorize tons of things, mostly useless facts. They learn math but don't know how to apply it. There is fear to do things in a new way. For Haiti to climb out of their problems we need many people who can be innovative, who dare to take risk and try new things.
This experience made me more than ever determined to start a new school for our orphans, for children in the community who do not get a chance to use their brains because they are poor, because they cannot pay
for uniforms.
Hopefully we will get the money it takes to do this. We are working on it. Oh, if you happen to have $250,000, we will even name the school after you or someone you want to honor with that. I am not joking. I did that once last year, the next day I had the $30,000 we needed. Learned my lesson, everything is possible. With God.

My Christmas story for this year

My mother used to read to us from a book called "Nobody's Boy" or as it's called in Dutch "Alleen op de Wereld". It is a very sad story about a boy called Remi who was abandoned as a baby somewhere in France. In those days  I could not imagine that someone could do that. That's the story that has been in my head since I played with Jud-Love our newest member of the Matthew 28 family, this week.
I wonder when Jud-Love will discover that she has been abandoned. Will she ever get rid of the fear she went through when someone left her in the dark alley on the outside of the orphanage gate. How long was she there alone where she could have been eaten by a wild dog, before she was found. How many people almost stepped on her when they hurried by in the dark. How scary was it when the big gate creaked open and a strange person picked her up. Would she still remember her mommy if she were to come back. Who laid her there? Were they watching when she was picked up? How old is she really and where did she come from? What is her real name. Endless questions going through my mind. Just imagine her mind!
She smiled every once in a while. A good sign. Already some of her older "sisters" carry her around and proudly use her as their live doll. They love her and look out for her. Has she ever had that before? Most likely we will never know the answers to any of these questions.
But what I do know gives me peace just like the end of the book did long time ago. Her life will be different from Remi's but Jud Love is now home in a place where many people will love and care for her. Just as Remi she will not have a youth of riches or wealth, but she'll have food and a place to sleep. She will go to school and grow up with her many brothers and sisters. She will get to go to church on Sunday and sing in the little kids choir, clapping her little hands and wiggling her little feet. There will be so much more....
Jud-Love is our newest child but she is yours too when you support our work. And even if you don't, she is yours because all the children in this world are ours to take care of when they need it.
You were a child once too.

When you can't say what you wanna say!

Do you remember that bible story about the guy who rode on the donkey and it could speak! This guy went to curse the people of Israel, sort of a free lance job, and all that came out of his mouth were blessings and good things. Well I will give you a modern day version of that.

There once was a TSA officer who went to work at the airport. His day was going quite well until in the afternoon, a mission team came through his line. One of these dudes was carrying a back pack with on the outside a bunch of insect nets strapped to it. The kind that have two foot long wooden handles attached to metal frames. Well of course that was a no-no. What was that guy thinking! So the nets had to go, they could not go be carried on. Could they maybe go in the checked luggage? Not an option because the bags, which were too heavy in the first place, had already been checked and were on the way to the airplane. So now what? The nets were important for the work. The mission worker got upset, but the officer would not budge. Talking it over did not help either. The officer was right. It could not go.Standing back while watching helplessly, an emergency request popped up in my head. God, please let the guy change his mind. The discussion went on and was leading nowhere. Then it happened. The man confirmed once more that the nets could NOT go. His next sentence was " Gentlemen y'all have a good day" and he stepped away. Still in a daze the mission worker grabbed his nets and walked on. What had just happened?

I  envision the officer standing in front of the mirror that night, trying over and over again to say " You will have to leave those items here". The words came out right each time. But this afternoon they would not!  He shook his head. Maybe it had just been a dream.

Sometimes things like this happen. Coincidence?

Sylvany

In my previous post I talked about God's plan for our lives. Well listen to this one!

About ten years ago when I was in Haiti, one afternoon  I walked into the girls dorm of the orphanage. I did not usually do that but my curiosity had been raised because I heard a tiny little baby crying. It was odd because at the time we did not take in babies since we did not have the means to nourish them, something we still don't do. I walked into the dark hallway and soon found the room with the little crying child. There was nobody in the room and I picked the baby up from the bed it was laying on. She was so little so perfect with her silk black curls and she squeezed her little eyes against the light that peeked through the window. I hummed a little song to her and when she was quiet, all of a sudden one of the caretakers came in and swiftly took the girl out of my arms. I was a little disappointed and asked the lady " I did not know that we took little ones like that", and "What is her story". The lady answered that I would better ask pastor Pauluis.
With that said I left the two behind and went about my work.
That evening during dinner I remembered and asked Pauluis. He got all excited and shared  Sylvany's story with me.
Sylvany was born in a little village called Bankamarie where we had a feeding center. The father had died earlier and the mother was in bad shape after giving birth. A few days later she died and Sylvany became an orphan. The maternal grandmother tried to take care of the child but had no ways or means. Sylvany was quickly wasting away. In utter distress the grandmother laid  the baby without clothes in the yard behind the house where a hog was pinned up. Although this is something no one talks about, it still happens in Haiti from time to time. The hog was expected to eat the baby. But it did not happen that way. A neighbor lady had witnessed the act and snatched the infant up just before the hog touched it.
As she had now taken the responsibility for the child she took it to Bohoc where she knew a lady who was at the time on the board of Matie Vingt-Huit, the orphanage.
It just so happened that Pauluis, the director, had married Marita the head care giver nine months earlier and that Marita was expecting her first child, which was due to be born any day. Without much trouble she was able to start nursing Sylvany and when shortly thereafter her own daughter Clifline was born she fed the two together. Marita was of course in the unusual situation that she had plenty of good food available and thus was able to feed the two of them without problems. Any other woman in the area would barely have had enough milk for one.
Now to me that was a miracle, a chain of events in which I clearly see God's hand.  How much did He want little Sylvany to live. Just imagine how much He loves you too. I marvel at the idea of seeing God play chess against Bobby Fisher or Karpov. They wouldn't know what hit them. He thinks all these moves ahead and He is waiting for you to make your move.

You are not an accident

For You created my inmost being;
       You knit me together in my mother's womb .Psalm 139:13

 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
       before you were born I set you apart; Jeremiah 1:5a

From being a little boy I have always known that I was loved and wanted. Not until my mother read us the famous Hector Malot novel “Nobody’s Boy” did I know that there were children for whom it was different. I remember crying when Remi left the house at the hand of Vitalis. My world felt all of a sudden less safe. I still think back with fondness to those precious hours before bed time, listening to stories being read. They were moments shielded from the cruel world outside. Those were the days that I could barely read myself.  

Years later, as I was leading Mission Camps, it became apparent to me that many more have to deal with this ‘not being wanted’ thing. Nowadays one of my standard devotions I use is based on that subject. It is so important for people, especially for young people to know that they are not accidents. Today parents often think that, because they have all sorts of birth control available, the conception and birth of a child is solely their choice.  I believe with all my heart that God is the One who gives that privilege to them. Yes, we know how to make a baby and yes many babies are conceived without any plans to do so. But failure on our side to be careful with this privilege God gives us does not mean a lack of planning on His side.

It is heart breaking to see young people raise their hands when asked if they ever overheard their parents speak of them as an accident. It is so ignorant of parents to speak of their children like that. Christian parents should know better than that.  Read the passages at the top of this chapter again. You get it? God tells us through those words that He knows all about us before we are formed in the womb. Knitted is the word that David the author of this psalm uses. He set us aside. That means He made a plan for us!

My mother used to knit a lot. Our family had nine people and most every sweater in our house came from her knitting needles or even more fun, the knitting machine. I loved to watch her use it. I still hear the sound of the slider over the needles. It created music in my head and the sweater was growing with every move. I would help her keeping the yarn from tangling up. It is funny how things change in life. Now I cannot bring up the patience to get a knot out of an extension cord.

Knitting is something that takes a lot of planning. You have to have it all in your head or on a piece of paper and do a lot of counting otherwise it is not going to work. I think that’s why David in Psalm 139 uses the metaphor of knitting. Being a shepherd he might have been a knitter himself. He shows us that God has a plan for us. We were in His head before we came to being, yes long before that moment.  I share that with young people so they may understand that their decision to come to a Mission Camp is part of God’s plan for their life. It fits also in God’s plans for the lives of the people they come to serve. And when from time to time He allows us to have a little insight in these plans, it blows our mind. That’s my God. He loves me and since he knitted me he wants me to be good. Just like the rest of the creation he made long time ago.

I have since grown up and found out that God has an awesome plan for my life. In the following chapters I will try to share with you how I, little by little, have come to understand that. I’m still learning and never know what’s next. All I know is the end of the story. I’m going to be with Him. Yeah!

Where is my courage?

Some time ago I read a very interesting story about the spread of Christianity in the world. One thing that captured my attention was the courage of countless early Christians in the face of death. Almost all of the Apostles died in a violent way. Many accounts have been noted throughout the ages of Christians refusing to denounce Jesus Christ and being tortured or killed for their beliefs. Still today there are quite a few countries with ongoing persecution of Christians. Even in Haiti there are still areas where the lives of them can be in jeopardy. Just a handful of years ago we visited in one of these "zones". Shortly before our visit, a preacher had been killed under the cover of night. It was a grim reminder of the ongoing spiritual warfare against followers of Jesus.

Reflecting on that I wondered if I would be that strong? As a little boy my fourth grade teacher had a wonderful gift of telling stories. He would read from this book about the Eighty Year war, a religious tinted war between protestant Holland and  Roman Catholic Spain following the time of the Reformation. I vividly remember the stories about the people who burned at the stake or were drowned in burlap sacks, weighted with stones. They were so brave. Sometimes after school was over we protestants kids fought with the catholic kids, whose school we had to pass on the way home. Mostly it was calling names and throwing rocks. It made you feel like you came up for those martyrs. Silly stuff.

But where is my courage now. Upon waking one morning,  I heard a fragment of a radio program and the one sentence that stuck with me was: "We don't need a Creator in this world".
That is often the opinion these days and hardly news but when do I object? Have the people who say these things ever experienced something that makes them doubt? In my years I have seen things that rocked my little world and that encouraged my faith immensely but I wonder if I have done enough to share that with others. Maybe I have to look at myself first before I talk about others. Some people with whom I did share my stories, smiled in apparent disbelief. Others encouraged me to write a book about it. Well, I've  tried many times but have put it aside just as often. Yet, the above has emboldened me to try it once again. I am going to write about these events in my blog. Maybe, just maybe it will encourage someone else who wonders if we need a Creator.

To be continued........